Lifestyles

Rosa Linda's gets death threats after accused of refusing Romney

Oscar Aguirre shows the strain of being thrown into controversy after his family's restaurant reportedly denied GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney the use of the eatery for a campaign stop. The family and campaign say it was a misunderstanding. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

Avoid religion and politics — so the saying goes — during dinner.

And if you are a restaurant, the sentiment holds for breakfast and lunch, too.

Rosa Linda's, a Highland Mexican spot that has anchored a corner of West 33rd Avenue and Tejon Street since 1985, is slogging through a swamp of vitriol after the Denver alternative-weekly newspaper Westword ran a story saying the restaurant denied GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney the use of the space for a campaign stop Tuesday.

The story had legs. Now, hundreds of e-mails clog the restaurant's inbox, and the phone has been ringing nonstop — and not with people making reservations.

"I have gotten two death threats," said Oscar Aguirre, who owns the restaurant with his parents. "Somebody just called in, said, 'Go back to Mexico.' "

Out of the restaurant's 91 reviews on Yelp (as of Thursday afternoon), 13 had been posted since the controversy erupted. Most of the recent reviews were poor.

The nastiness, Aguirre said, springs from a misunderstanding: Rosa Linda's didn't deny the Romney team lunch. Its management just didn't want the restaurant used for political theater.

Advertisement

"If they wanted to stop by for food, no problem," he said.

Meanwhile, the Romney campaign says it never asked Rosa Linda's to host the candidate. In August, when the campaign reached out to the restaurant, it was to see whether the owners would be interested in joining the campaign and hosting occasional events.

The Westword story, campaign spokesman Chris Walker said, was incorrect, and he regrets the heat being directed at the restaurant.

"It is unfortunate incorrect information was being passed around as facts, and it is unfortunate the Aguirres are receiving these threats," he said.

But Aguirre said the restaurant received a campaign-stop request in August and quickly declined. He said a campaign staffer, who is a former Mormon missionary, said the event would make sense for a variety of reasons, including religion — Romney and Aguirre's parents are Mormon.

Regardless — whether the request was for Romney the candidate or Romney the campaign — the Aguirres decided their restaurant would not be a good fit for a national political campaign.

The restaurant has hosted local politicians in the past, including Chris Romer, who ran for Denver mayor in 2011. And President Barack Obama has eaten Rosa Linda's food at catered events. But the family did not want to turn Rosa Linda's into a campaign stage.

Things didn't work out as planned.

The business, which folds burritos and stacks enchiladas for 12 hours a day every day but Sunday, is known for more than its tamales: Rosa Linda's donates thousands of meals every Thanksgiving to people in need.

It makes for a busy life, one to which Aguirre would like to return.

"I don't need this," he added. "I need to get ready for Thanksgiving."

Local duo joining overseas exhibition excursionFilippo Swartz went to Italy, where his mother was born and he spent the first year or so of his life, every summer until he had to stick around to be a part of summer football activities for the Longmont High School team. Full Story

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

Most people don't play guitar like Grayson Erhard does. That's because most people can't play guitar like he does. The guitarist for Fort Collins' Aspen Hourglass often uses a difficult two-hands-on-the-fretboard technique that Eddie Van Halen first popularized but which players such as Erhard have developed beyond pop-rock vulgarity.
Full Story